Blackgate Prison

Located on a small island in the Gotham Bay, Blackgate Prison was the primary penitentiary in which the sane criminals of Gotham City were incarcerated, whereas criminally insane individuals were housed at Arkham Asylum.

Contents

Incident Reports

Before Arkham Origins Incident

Blackgate was the primary prison for criminals of Gotham City. Insane people were imprisoned there along with the sane due to the lack of mental health facilities in the city. Many of its guards were corrupt taking bribes from Black Mask and Penguin. Some guards were cruel to the inmates, beating them without consequence. To combat this, a new warden was appointed. He was not corrupt, but he was easily manipulated.

In December of Batman's second year of crime fighting, Julian Gregory Day was arrested on multiple counts of murder. He was psychologically evaluated by Dr. Harleen Quinzel, who deemed him insane. After this, Warden Joseph was manipulated into making Quinzel reevaluate her patient. This led to his being deemed sane and eligible for execution.

Arkham Origins Incident

Black Mask invaded Blackgate Prison along with Killer Croc to release the prisoners, as well as kill Commissioner Loeb, until Batman arrived to stop them. After he encountered Warden Joseph, Batman followed a trail of death and destruction caused by Killer Croc, until he discovered that Black Mask had put Calendar Man in the gas chamber, but gave up on killing him, and put Loeb in instead. Black Mask then turned the chamber on, killed Loeb, and made Batman swear that he would stop him.

After they got to the roof of the prison, Black Mask and his gang escaped, minus Killer Croc, who stayed to kill Batman and get the bounty. They fought until Croc was defeated, then Batman interrogated him until he discovered that Black Mask had put a bounty on his head, but was interrupted by Captain Gordon. Batman then fled the facility in the Batwing, and left Killer Croc to be arrested.

After Batman tracked the Joker to the Gotham Royal Hotel, he was captured and later imprisoned at Blackgate. Sometime later, Joker lead yet another riot at the prison. Batman arrived to stop Joker only to find Bane wearing a heart monitor that was charging an electric chair that he was sitting in. The only way to end this was for someone to die. Batman realized that no one had to die, someone's heart just had to stop beating. Batman used the Electrocutioner's Shock Gloves to temporarily stop Bane's heart. Joker later tried to escape with the intent of detonating the bombs that had his men place all around the city, but was pursued by Warden Joseph and Captain Gordon. Batman resuscitated Bane by using the Shock Gloves, but Bane injected himself with TN-1, which turned him into a gigantic, mindless beast. Batman defeated Bane in the sub basement level. He tied him up and left the police to find him. Joker had Joseph shot and he ran into the prison chapel. Batman disarmed him, beat him up, and left him to be arrested. Even though Captain Gordon was under orders to arrest the vigilante, he let Batman go believing that he could help Gotham City.

During the riot, 20 prisoners escaped. Gordon contacted Batman for help as he was short handed. Eventually, Batman found them all and left them to be arrested and taken back to Blackgate.

Arkham Origins Blackgate Incident

Three and a half months after the Christmas Eve Incident, a mysterious explosion occurred at Blackgate Prison, one that allowed all of the inmates, including Black Mask, Joker, and Penguin, to take over the prison and hold the staff hostage.

Arkham Asylum Incident

The Blackgate Prisoners were relocated to Arkham Asylum because a "mysterious fire" had burnt the prison down. During the incident, Batman discovered that the fire was caused by Frank Boles, a corrupt guard who worked at Arkham Asylum. It was also mentioned by Gordon as he thought Bane broke out of Blackgate.

Arkham City Incident

The Arkham City prisoners could be heard talking about the building that was Blackgate Prison, with some of them that said that they heard that it was turned into a shopping mall.

Between Arkham City and Arkham Knight Incident

After it was shown that the late Joker had somehow exposed Commissioner Gordon to a strain of Joker Toxin, Batman was forced to break Harley Quinn out of Blackgate to quickly track down an antidote. It's revealed that after the fire had burnt down the prison, the city had sent construction builders in to rebuild it. Afterward, the prison was re-dubbed New Blackgate.